Fifth gen fighters on HAL Ozar’s anvil

The Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) may use its Ozar facility to manufacture fifth generation fighter aircraft, for which it is already in talks with Russia for co-design and production.

T Suvarna Raju, chairman and managing director, HAL said, “We are co-developing the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFAs). We have completed the first phase and are in talks with Russia for detailed design and manufacturing of the aircraft. We are planning to manufacture the FGFA at our Ozar facility.”

Raju was speaking to media persons during a visit to Ozar for attending a conference of airline operators on Saturday.

He added, “We have also decided to manufacture the light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas at large numbers at the Bangalore division of the company.”

The ministry of defence had announced on Friday that, “India signed the inter-government agreement with Russia for co-development and co-production of fifth generation fighter aircraft in October 2007. As per the agreement, the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is the designated implementation organisation from the Indian side. The HAL is supported the by the Defence Research Development Organisation, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and other agencies.”

The statement added, “The HAL and the Rosoboronexport of Russia have signed the general contract in December 2008 and the preliminary design contract in December 2010. The preliminary stage of the project has been completed in June 2013. The next stage of development would commence upon signing of the research and development contract.”

The Ozar division of the HAL, located around 24km from here, is engaged in manufacturing of Su-30 MKI aircraft. The division was established in 1964 for licensed manufacturing of MiG-21FL aircraft and K-13 missiles. Since then, the division has manufactured and overhauled various MiG – MiG-21M, MiG-21BIS, MiG-27M andSu-30MKI aircraft. The division also provides design support for other Russian origin aircraft. The division is equipped with state-of-the-art plant, machinery, equipment and infrastructure with trained manpower in different areas of science and technology.